production and use of natural arabinogalactan
TRANSCRIPT
Production and use of natural arabinogalactan
polysaccharide for animal feeding
20 November 2019
Forum «GrainTek-2019»
Ablaev Alexey Ravilievich
General Director «NanoTaiga»
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Arabinogalactan
Arabinogalactan is a water-soluble polysaccharide of
plant origin, which has a variety of valuable properties
(biological activity, surface-active and adhesive
properties, good solubility in water, low viscosity of
concentrated aqueous solutions), due to which it is used
in medicine, food, pharmaceutical, cosmetic industry,
veterinary medicine, as well as in the pulp and paper
industry and printing
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Uses of arabinogalactan
Medicine
• as an immunomodulator, in particular, for the correction of defects in the phagocytic
system of an organism during pseudotuberculosis infection;
Pharmaceutical industry
• as a binder in the manufacture of tablets;
• to increase the absorption of drugs with low bioavailability.
Cosmetic industry
• in the manufacture of creams and masks as an emulsifier to stabilize oil emulsions;
Food industry - is used as a food additive E409 permitted in the territory of the Russian
Federation (stabilizer)
• as a thickener in the manufacture of sauces, ketchups;
• as a dietary supplement for improving the activity of the gastrointestinal tract
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In animals
Arabinogalactans isolated from Siberian larch are typical biologically
active compounds (prebiotics) recognized as promising for use in
medicine, pharmacology, and biotechnology.
In the United States, they are approved for use in food since 1974.
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The use of larch arabinogalactan and taxifolin
Larch arabinogalactan and taxifolin have many uses and have been approved
worldwide for human consumption and as a component of animal feed. About
1,000 tons per year are currently produced worldwide by Lonza and Ametis.
To become widely used in animal feed (to replace antibiotics), it needs to be
produced cheaper. CelloFuel technologies make it possible to obtain
arabinogalactan (LAG) and taxifolin (DHQ) from larch chips from larch cheaper
than existing production technologies with higher purity from larch.
Larch arabinogalactan can eliminate the need for antibiotics in chicken feed,
which allows you to sell chicken as organic (which gives a 50% price increase
compared to chicken that is given antibiotics). In 2020, it will be prohibited to
use antibiotics in feed for chickens in the EU and Russia, so larch
arabinogalatan can be used in the EU and Russia to produce healthier
chickens.
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Carbohydrate-rich crops in Russia
Wheat 115 Mt / year, 78% starch 88.7 Mt / year
Corn 13 Mt / year, 15% starch 1.9 Mt / year
Sugar beet 47 Mt / year, 16% sucrose 7.5 Mt / year
Larch 129 Mt / year, 10% arabinogalactan 12.9 Mt / year
Larch growth in Russia: 24950 m3, 0.52 t / m3, 12974 Mt
Suppose you can collect 1% per year sustainably 129 Mt / year of larch
At a 10% content of arabinogalactan product 12.9 Mt / year
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The problems of extracting arabinogalactan from larch
Problem: Trees grow deep in the forest, very expensive transportation
Solution: Remove the crude arabinogalactan near the logging area.
Problem: Arabinogalactan has a high molecular weight,
Solution: Extract by adding 5% ethanol to the chips, steaming
Problem: Energy is needed for steam and for drying crude arabinogalactan
Solution: Steam after burning wood chips after extraction of arabinogalactan
Problem: Logging area often moves
Solution: Put equipment in a shipping container, inexpensive
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Problem
There are existing producers,
but the high price is an obstacle.
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NanoTaiga and CelloFuel
The CelloFuel mobile biomass processing plant produces sugar from
biomass. Our first project is the production of arabinogalactan from
larch (LAG) and taxifolin (DHQ) from larch chips in the USA, Canada
(tamarak), Russia and China (Siberian and Daurian larch). We also
produce hemicellulose sugars from straw and coniferous wood, which
can then be used to produce ethanol and animal feed.
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No scale-up risk
The CelloFuel module is a single vertical HDPE pipe rotated around
the center of gravity using a trunnion. Scaling to a larger scale involves
simply increasing the number of modules and installing these modules
where biomass is grown. We expect this to scale to tens of thousands
of modules, so we are working hard to ensure that each module can be
manufactured inexpensively.
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Patent Status (on 15 November 2019)
Methods for fermenting carbohydrate-rich crops
US9499839 (USA) status: Granted
RU2642296 (Russia) status: Granted
BR112016005352 (Brazil) status: Granted
CN107109440B (China) status: Granted
EP3140411 (European Union) status: Granted, validated
in 10 EU countries
AR106148A1 (Argentina) status: Pending
Pending in India and Ukraine patent offices
Method for fermenting stalks of the Poaceae family
US9631209 (USA) status: Granted
RU2650870 (Russia) status: Granted
EP3277825B1 (EU) status: Granted, validated in Spain,
Italy, Hungary
MX2017005160A (Mexico) status: Granted
CN107849585B (China) status: Granted
BR112017008075A2 (Brazil) status: Accelerated
examination
IN201717012771 filed with India Patent Office
Accelerated examination in Ukraine patent office
Methods and apparatus for separating ethanol from
fermented biomass
US10087411 (USA) status: Granted
RU2685209 (Russia) status: Granted
CA3025016A1 (Canada) status: Accelerated examination
CN109414627A (China) status: Accelerated examination
Granted by Ukraine patent office
IN201817037964 filed with India patent office (first
examination report received)
Accelerated examination in EU, Mexico and Brazil patent
offices
Methods and systems for producing sugars from
carbohydrate-rich substrates
US9194012 (USA) status: Granted
RU9194012 (Russia) status: Granted
CA2884907 (Canada) status: Granted
CN105283468 (China) status: Granted
EP3004178 (European Union) status: Granted, validated
in 7 EU countries
There are four patent families for the production of sugars and ethanol that have been issued in the United States and
around the world, including the United States, the EU, Canada, Russia, China, Mexico and Brazil.
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Existing technology
A known method (RU 2143437 C1), according to which arabinogalactan is extracted from crushed larch wood chips by water extraction at a
temperature of 80-90 ° C in continuous circulation for 2 hours after removing from it dihydroquercetin (DHQ) with an organic solvent and
drying the chips in a gentle mode. The aqueous extract of AG is concentrated under reduced pressure, treated with aqueous solutions of a
coagulant — aluminum sulfate and Sunfloc flocculant, followed by filtration and precipitation of AG with a four-fold volume of ethyl alcohol,
decantation of the supernatant, washing of the precipitate with alcohol and drying.
The disadvantages of this method are :
• high energy consumption for the concentration of the aqueous extract of AG by evaporation under reduced pressure;
• special storage conditions and a special mode of working with it;
• the use of a coagulant together with a flocculant, which increases the cost of the process and leads to contamination of the product.
Closest to the proposed is a method for producing arabinogalactan from larch wood, which consists in extracting larch wood with water for 1
h at a temperature of 95 ° C, filtering and centrifuging from fine solids, processing the extract with a polyamide sorbent in a turbulent mode,
followed by filtration, and concentrating the filtrate ultrafiltration and isolation of the target product by spray drying (RU 2143437 C1).
This method has significant disadvantages :
• de-tarred larch wood is used to produce AG, which leads to the loss of an extremely valuable dihydroquercetin product and does not
provide sufficient purity of the AG extract;
•multi-stage process and the use of expensive equipment (continuous centrifuges);
•the use of a powdered polyamide sorbent that requires frequent regeneration and does not have industrial production in Russia;
•the use of large quantities of methyl ethyl ketone, a toxic, flammable and expensive organic solvent, for the regeneration of a polyamide
sorbent;
• low degree of concentration of the extract by ultrafiltration (AG content in the concentrate 10.5%).
Currently, there is no industrial production of arabinogalactan in Russia. In connection with the introduction of technology for the production
of dihydroquercetin from larch wood, AG extract became a waste product and goes into wastewater.
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Technology
CelloFuel technologies produce sugar and ethanol from biomass near the biomass growing area, eliminating
the cost of transporting biomass to a more centralized location.
CelloFuel technologies can be scaled to industrial sizes, but they are equally effective on a farm scale. Our
initial product is a large-scale product that scales by parallel replication to hundreds of modules.
CelloFuel modules inject reagents into sugar-rich raw materials, optionally depolymerizing lignin, optionally
depolymerizing hemicellulose, and extracting polymer and monomeric sugars using semi-continuous
counterflow extraction.
CelloFuel modules can optionally be assembled in a series of 4 to 8 modules for semi-serial countercurrent
sugar recovery. Each module uses a patented vacuum cycle with enzymatic hydrolysis to accelerate the
extraction of sugars from biomass into bulk liquid.
CelloFuel modules can optionally ferment monomeric sugars to ethanol within biomass. CelloFuel modules
produce aqueous ethanol with an alcohol content of 80 to 95% by volume (ABV). It can be used for the
production of drinking ethanol, fuel for engines and fuel for cooking. This aqueous ethanol can be transported
to a central refinery for the further production of transport fuels or more valuable chemicals.
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Manufacturing
The CelloFuel Portable Biomass Processing Plant is made up of several CelloFuel modules, each made of
a vertical HDPE pipe. Pipes are loaded by rotating the pipe around its center of gravity on the trunnion.
Pipe rotation is used for loading and unloading biomass.
CelloFuel modules are low-cost vacuum containers that use food grade HDPE and stainless steel. They
can be quickly collected near the biomass collection site.
The CelloFuel module is designed for very cheap production and can be assembled and disassembled with
a hand tool - a screwdriver and a wrench. Low-cost gasket is used to seal end caps with HDPE corrugated
pipe. For the manufacture of end caps, the central belt and the trunnion, some metal cutting, metal rolling
and a little welding are required, everything else can be done with a metal saw and drill. The axle does not
need a bearing. When disassembling, several CelloFuel modules can be transported efficiently in 20-foot
shipping containers.
The top and bottom of the HDPE pipe are connected using stainless steel plates. When using oxalic acid
with softwood, they are made of type 444 stainless steel, which is resistant to corrosion with oxalic acid
(like HDPE). The top cover has a cover that can be removed from the HDPE pipe to load and unload
biomass. Several HDPE pipes are mounted in rows so that they can be efficiently loaded and unloaded
and used for semi-continuous counterflow extraction.
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Project Status (15 November 2019)
We are testing to optimize the extraction of arabinogalactan
from larch chips. We use US Pat. No. 10,087,411 with a 75
mm diameter vacuum distillation column to optimize this
process. As soon as this is done, we will begin to test a
vacuum distillation column with a volume of 2.5 m3.
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Pilot
A 1/3 scale model of the CelloFuel module was
successfully built, and we are starting to create
a full-size CelloFuel module with a diameter of 1
m and a height of 6 m (with an assembly cost of
less than $ 2,000). The 1/3 scale model has a
volume of 1/2 m3, where the full-size CelloFuel
module is 5 m3. Here are some pictures of
vertical orientation, horizontal orientation, top
cover and trunnion.
